'Freakier Friday' and the awkward joy of reliving your teen years

USA Today

16 hours ago

'Freakier Friday' is just one dot in a growing constellation of films urging viewers to relive their teen years. Is it worth taking the bait?
Pull together a focus group of average Americans, and the likelihood that a sizable portion would want to relive their teenage years seems pretty slim.
Cystic acne. Braces. A curfew. What's to miss?
Recently, however, Hollywood executives seem to be wagering that − unwieldy hormones and stubborn body odor aside − there must be something. Joining the din of already raucous sequel-mania, studios have offered audiences revival after revival aimed at capturing coming-of-age nostalgia.
With a "Clueless" series in the works, an impending third installment of the "Legally Blonde" franchise, and an ill-fated "She's All That" remake on Netflix, fans can feast at a buffet of late-'90s and Y2K culture remixed for the modern age. (See also: the new "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Final Destination Bloodlines.") Nowhere is that nostalgia more present though than in the latest movie to add its name to the canon: "Freakier Friday."
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A follow-up to the 2003 classic "Freaky Friday," the film (in theaters now) brings back stars Jamie Lee Curtis, 66, and Lindsay Lohan, 39, for more body swap humor, this time as a mother and grandmother to a new rebellious teen.
Lohan's appearance alone offers a bout of nostalgia, returning a familiar face to screens after the one-time teen sensation stepped away from moviemaking for an extended period. She, like Curtis, has still got it – hitting her slapstick comedy marks with precision, even if the film falls a bit short of the magic of the original.
Watching her revive a role once defined by recklessness and angst, now as a stable, family-oriented adult, feels not only meta to Lohan's own story but may offer a clue to the chord Hollywood is hoping to strike.
Reliving your teens from the safety of adulthood is the perfect voyeuristic formula. Like romanticizing a relationship after a breakup, your brain can easily paper over the worst parts, cunningly convincing you it's something worth revisiting.
While "Freakier Friday," is certainly fine viewing for a 15-year-old, the audiences likely flocking to theaters are those for whom the original had meaning. Maybe people closer to Lohan's age, with families or careers of their own, hoping for a hit of reminiscence, without any of the mess that accompanies actually coming of age.
"Freakier Friday" offered viewers a pretty decent bargain. The movie dipped into some of the nostalgia of the original – with a Chad Michael Murray appearance and a musical performance by Lohan – but didn't belabor the inside jokes. Box-office numbers are promising, too, with the movie raking in $29 million in North America for opening weekend.
Whether other revivals can stick the landing remains to be seen. "He's All That," which paired an influencer-heavy cast with a sloppy remix of the plot, is certainly a cautionary tale. When you pick back up a once-beloved item, you always run the risk of it not fitting the same − finding, for instance, that dress should never have been layered over those low-rise jeans. Even in 2003.